Mount St Helens, Lawetlat'la, W7W/LC-001. Sunrise from the summit is one of the best sights in the Western US, so I started the hike at 1am with the hopes of making the summit before sunrise. I ran into some trouble with my skis getting traction on the steeper pitches even with ski crampons and had to strap them to my pack. I lost the pole mount for my gopro on one of these minor uphill travel falls. I also discovered that my crampons were not going to work out the way I set them up at home. With some Macgyvering of straps from my backpack, I was able to secure the toes to my ski boots. The snow was forgiving and I had no issues after that.
Troubleshooting my gear issues slowed me down a bit and I missed sunrise by 10-15 minutes. After taking some photos on the crater rim, I traversed West to the activation zone. At the time the high traverse was a little sketchy and I was getting hungry. In the activation zone I set up a rollup J-pole and made 14 contacts on VHF with 2 Summit to summits. Good fun!
I was feeling pretty tired from carrying the skis and decided not to set up HF. I probably should have stayed and done that because it would've given me the opportunity to rest more and let the snow on the middle mountain soften up. After some good upper mountain turns, my fatigue caught up to me. By the time I was at the middle mountain my legs were toast and I was feeling off balance. Out of caution for me knees I side slipped down much of the mountain.
MSH makes for a big day and I was happy to be back safe at the car.
#SOTA #SummitsOnTheAir #PortableOps
